Sleeper
by ashleysays
Summary: Searching for a planet with sustainable life, the Uchiha empire expands to another galaxy- but finds earth instead. They refuse to interfere with a still-evolving world and choose another solar system 200 light years away. What they weren't expecting was for Haruno Sakura to find them instead, four hundred years later when the human race advances. Rated M.
1. Chapter 1: The Fallen Race

I do not own Naruto.

Hello! Obviously it's been a long time since I have written anything...life and whatnot. But this is how I am going to get over my writer's block and continue on my past stories. I need to get interested in writing again and make this up before i can regain interest in my past works enough to complete them. Hopefully you guys like this. I'm not only obsessed with delusional thinking, i'm also obsessed with space...so, here it is!

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Sleeper  
Chapter 1

"Why am I not surprised to find you here?" Itachi spoke, his voice reverberating through the large chamber. "You should be commanding the dispatch crew, not wallowing in the dark." Again, his words repeated back to him off the thick walls. His younger brother, true to his character, did nothing but turn his seat to face the other wall, where the light of the approaching galaxy did not bother his eyes. The curtains were slightly drawn, as if the young man had opened them earlier that morning, and immediately regretted it.

"I am quite sure they can find their own way off the ship. It isn't necessarily a difficult task." He spat, twirling his empty glass in his hand. Itachi gave a sparing glance to the bar area on the other side of the room, glad to see it was still well stocked. His brother would be of no use if his wallowing had transformed to alcoholism so quickly. He _was_ the craft's commander, after all. Therefore, he permitted it his job to point out the obvious to his foolish little brother: "This is your crew. They don't need you holding their hand as they depart the craft. They need you merely to observe. You cannot give direction if you confine yourself to solitary."

This earned nothing but a grunt and the empty glass hurled in his direction, crashing to the floor unceremoniously. The footsteps of a passerby outside the door temporarily halted in alarm.

"Father would not be pleased." Itachi discouraged, raising a brow at the shattered glass and knowing it to be his best chance to alter the younger Uchiha's plummeting moods. "You're making this harder than it need be. Go out, shake some hands, and command the ranks. That is all." With that he turned on his heel to open the door and let the bright light of the hall to streak in on his younger brother's un-expecting face, smirking when said Uchiha groaned loudly and lifted himself from the seat. He streaked a hand down his face to show Itachi just how much he loathed him in that very instant.

"I should have you killed."

"Now, Sasuke. Keep saying things like that and you'll lose your empire." Itachi chided, holding in a chuckle he knew would only get him throttled as they made their way through the hall to the large command center where everyone had been waiting for the last hour. Sasuke didn't seem very concerned about that- in fact, Itachi was almost positive his younger sibling had planned to never show in the first place.

"What's the status?" Sasuke breathed, plopping into his seat and gazing out at the cluster of stars before them. The galaxy spinning gently in a whirlpool motion, reminding him of his own over 90 million lightyears away. Also reminding him that perhaps he had drank too much the night before, turning away from the spinning cluster that was beginning to make him more than a little nauseous- and looking to his right, regarding a man he didn't bother learning the name of.

The man sputtered for an answer, pressing a few buttons and fumbling over his own hands for a moment. Sasuke merely watched him, turned to raise a brow at his older brother condescendingly, then returned to glaring at the bumbling crewdecker. Finally, once the Uchiha was debating whether to expel him from the spacecraft, the man pulled up the switchboard. It lit the command center before them with detailed holographs of the galaxy's many solar systems, eliminating any that did not fit the category they were searching for.

"We have surveyed these systems, many of which inhabit gas-giants or rocky planets that orbit too closely to their sun for any form of life. There are two systems, however, that seem suitable enough. The first is here," The man widened the scope of the holographic input, making the view of the particular solar system more perceivable. "The first three planets orbit much too closely to their mother-star. But the fourth is non-inhabited and shows few signs of an ability to house life. We would need to change the overall atmosphere of the entire planet to match our own, which should not take too long. But there is still no promises that the actual planet itself will be able to sustain any plant-life-"

"What chances does it give us, even after changing the atmosphere?"

"Uh-" The man glanced at the Uchiha, his Lieutenant, hoping that this wouldn't anger him. "Only a 43% chance with the planet itself. But there are other alternative measures that we may take to ensure its stability. But it will take much longer time to cultivate an actual civilization for our own people-"

"And what of the other solar system? Are its chances higher?" Sasuke rolled his tongue and Itachi threw him a disparaging glance for his bored behavior.

"The other system has a larger sun than the last and also eight planets- four of which are gas and the other four rock. There are two planets capable of housing life. The one less capable is the fourth planet, which is purely desert at this point, but there are traces that there was once water on this." The hologram at the front of the room magnified the planet, a list of the atmosphere's elements appearing on the right-hand side. "At some point the magnetic field of the planet must have died and the solar winds from their sun evaporated all water from the surface. This planet would have a 76% chance of sustainability for life with a change of atmosphere. It is the logical choice." The hologram spun and shifted before returning to a view of the entire system.

"What were the readings of the second planet you spoke of?" Itachi asked, cutting off his little brother's next question, which was most likely going to be the same as his own. Sasuke threw him a glare but listened to the man's answer nonetheless.

"The third planet from the sun has a strong magnetic field and the atmosphere is comparable to our own. There would not need to be any changes and it already has perfect capabilities to house life-"

"Then why not tell us of this planet in the first place?" Itachi cut off his sibling once again. Sasuke growled lowly from his seat to Itachi's left.

"This planet holds life already. From their stage, it seems for millions of years."

"Are they intelligent?" Sasuke cut in, before his brother could intervene once more, smirking when Itachi threw him a look.

The holographic monitor spun to new life, a myriad of pictures and motion overtaking the projection-floor. "By the information we gather from their civilizations, they have evolved quickly in intelligence and technology for their youth. But they still war and still starve. They know almost nothing about life outside of their own solar-system, though they suspect it is possible. Everything they knew about their own life and beginning is from what they learn about the planets and mother-star they orbit."

The pictures that showed Sasuke towering, majestic structures built by the creatures and open, rolling fields or oceans of nature quickly turned to that of hatred and violence. Man against man in vengeful acts. Different groups of their people pitted against one another for many reasons which they each deemed important at the time- not realizing that they were all the same people. "They still use resources from their own planet?" He asked, watching the information skitter to a halt on one particular picture. It was a picture of his own galaxy, so far away. The picture was distorted and slightly blurry from these creature's lack of advanced enough technology, but it was there and it did funny things to his stomach.

"Yes. And from the light of their own sun." the man brought up a different picture of strange flat discs reflecting the sun's rays. "Their intelligence will grow and prosperity will follow. In approximately one hundred years, their race will advance to another level of technology suitable for contact."

"But for now, we do not interfere." Itachi spoke sternly, walking up to the controls and flicking the tip of his finger over the console until more information appeared- pictures of the creatures themselves, so alike to Sasuke's own and that strange feeling in his stomach returned. "They're so tiny." Itachi mused, tilting his head slightly and smirking at the image of the people, all clustered together and lifting some sort of fabric on a stick in the air, waving in the wind with its stripes and stars. "Do you agree, little brother?" He turned to Sasuke, who took this opportunity to finally rise from his position and join Itachi at the console.

"Yes. We do not interfere with a developing planet." Sasuke stared a moment longer at the weaker creatures on the projection-floor hologram, noting their similar faces and smaller statures. "We will use the previous solar system and hope that a 43% chance is good enough."

"Now, aren't you glad I forced you out of your seclusion, little brother?"


	2. Chapter 2: The God Complex

I do not own Naruto.

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Chapter 2:  
The God Complex

"Sasuke, would you come and look at this?" Itachi crowed from the other side of the command center. Sasuke had ordered the information about the habitated world to be filtered, only allowing certain facts into consideration about the people living there. This was merely for the purpose of keeping the crew's interest un-peaked, but it only served to do the opposite. Any chance his older brother got, he was observing them. And that meant he was observing them often, which also meant that he was endlessly talking about them. Granted, the only information he was allowed to see were things such as their languages, governments, and so on. But Sasuke was growing increasingly irritated with his brother's continual perusal of the under-evolved species, finding any excuse to examine the monitors of info.

The one thing that Sasuke had made sure was, without a doubt, that Itachi and the other crew members would not see the people themselves. Joining in study of their basic religious practices and strange ceremonies that they called "weddings" was jovial enough. But Sasuke knew that becoming too personal with such a species could be dangerous, especially with someone as intrigued as Itachi or as impulsive as Naruto. It would be a very dangerous combination if the two knew anything about the physicality of the creatures, other than the fact that they eerily resembled his own race. It still put a twist in his gut, even after it had been many years since they stumbled upon the planet (after finding it, Sasuke himself had returned to his home to confront the council about their plans of cultivating a new world. What was supposed to be a short meeting ended up with him staying to rule the empire while Itachi remained in the new galaxy and changed the new planet's atmosphere, which was a job that would take more than a century without damaging the planet itself. Sasuke had only returned to the ship two weeks prior and Itachi had deemed it his mission to inform Sasuke of absolutely everything they were able to learn, which was not much.)

True, they seemed to evolve at a rapid speed. But that wasn't enough for the younger Uchiha to take chances of making contact with the small planet they called "Earth." Such a strange name. Such strange languages and beliefs. He would have refused to know any of these things about the people if Itachi and the Uzumaki didn't prattle about it incessantly. "Look at what?" he finally ground out, frowning at the crewdecker he was trying to speak with. Itachi, of course, was interrupting his endeavors….again. No doubt he was going to remark on yet another _grand invention_ that the "humans" had ventured upon. Sasuke briefly remembered the last inventions that had put Itachi into all kinds of fits of excitement:

_"__They have this thing they call a car, which they sit in and it moves them from place to place- essentially it looks like a box of metallic structures, and it ruins their air supply quite badly, but they don't know that yet."_

_"__They set fire to these "cigarettes" and breathe them in, which gives them a disease that kills them many years later- but they do it anyway."_

_"__They only live approximately a century. Such a short time in the span of all things. Can you imagine only a century of life? It's almost sad."_

_"__Mars- that's what they call the other planet. They sent this "rover" thing onto it and brought back rock samples, just like with their moon. Quite an inquisitive species. I can tell we'll get along just fine—once you finally remove that stick up your ass and make contact with them, of course."_

_"__The cars don't even pollute their air supply anymore, they just fly around in them using power from their sun, which I guess used to be written in fictional books but it took them two centuries to conquer the technology for it to be readily available."_

"They've made nuclear-powered ships to "seek unknown answers to the mysteries of the universe."" He fiddled with the controls a little, bringing up a hologram of the small ship, which seemed like a grain of rice compared to their own.

"They can't even use the energy from another planet yet instead of destroying their own. What makes you think this will even work?" Sasuke gave up trying to actually do his job, because it obviously just wasn't going to happen. At least, not while his brother was still alive.

"I didn't say it was going to work. I just said they made it. It definitely won't work." Itachi mused, enhancing the holographic projection and examining the detailed spacecraft they had constructed. "That thing won't make it past Saturn."

"Why are you so interested in knowing their inventions if you'll never meet one of them?" the younger Uchiha trudged to the module and flipped the projection off, earning a scowl form Itachi.

"And whose fault is that?"

"Mine." Sasuke agreed abruptly. "But you're forgetting that you were the first to agree that not interfering was the best solution."

"Yes, it was the best solution. But that was three hundred years ago-"

"Itachi," he started, planning to deny him completely. But looking at his older brother's face and remembering the pain it had held when Sasuke had been crowned heir, instead of Itachi who had its birthright, he felt enough pity for his only living family member that his resolve suddenly softened. "If you wish, once we finish with this new planet, we will make contact—if, and only if, they are worthy by that time." Sasuke knew he was giving Itachi too much hope, because he was sure they would not advance to that degree in merely another century. But the words were out and he could not retract them now that Itachi held that soft, almost loving, smile. Itachi loved those ignorant, strange people; and Sasuke was sure that he would never understand why since he personally hated them so much.

"Of course. It would certainly brighten the boredom around here."

"Only on one condition, Itachi." Said man listened intently for the younger one's compromise. "We will only make contact in the future if you cease this obsession you have. We are landing soon and this craft will return home without us. It is our job now to focus solely on this new planet, not the one you so openly adore." He scoffed, trying to sound domineering but the smirk on Itachi's face proved it to be anything else.

"That is easily agreeable. Though, I can't promise that when we do make contact, my obsessions won't resurface."

Sasuke certainly hoped that he was joking.

* * *

"Sakura," Ino twiddled her thumbs, leaning her hip against the doorframe and peering into the file room, searching for the familiar tuft of pink hair she was sure to see. As if on command, a feminine grunt sounded from behind a massive stack of manila envelopes. "What are you doing in here?" Ino huffed, making noises of protest while trying her best to maneuver through the stacks without creating an earthquake of paperwork to fall onto her friend that was perched on the floor, staring so hard at the words on a page that she was sure she would go cross-eyed. The rosette-haired intern responded only with a glance at Ino then returned to her staring. "Seriously, Tsunade sent you to your quarters an hour ago and is now on a man-hunt. Go to sleep. I'm tired of looking at your ugly face."

"Excuse me, Ino-pig, but you haven't seen my face since this morning. So, shut up. I'm busy." Haruno Sakura then lifted an almighty chin and huffed, going back to her work with a superior expression.

"What are you so busy with anyway, you Cow?" The blond insulted, watching Sakura's feathers ruffle.

"You wouldn't be interested, Pig. You work in the Geology department—the only thing you're useful for here is telling me that my diamond necklace isn't real-"

"Well, it's not. That much is obvious." She insulted back, falling easily into their usual, unprofessional banter.

"Seriously, Ino, what are you doing in the Astronomy wing?" Sakura finally placed the abused file in the teetering stack and regarded her.

"I already told you, Stupid. Tsunade is looking for you." Ino frowned. Did the pink girl ever listen to anyone, or was she too bust geeking-out over stupid constellations?

"That's not unusual, Ino. She is my mentor, after all." Sakura thought she should point out, thinking Ino to be exaggerating a little too much about this.

"Whatever." The blond puffed and turned away, exiting with a flippant wave of her hand in farewell. "It's your funeral. I'll make sure to carve the word "ugly" into your tombstone."

Sakura opened her mouth to retort, but the blond was already gone and the door shut loudly, shaking the folders and causing them to collide with her lap in a heap of chaos. "Ino, you ass!" she hollered, shooting up and marching to the door. Flinging it open, she came face to face with none other than her annoyed mentor, Tsunade.

"There are people trying to sleep, Sakura-" The busty woman started but quickly changed the subject when she noticed the large mess of files behind her favorite apprentice's back from the doorway. "How do you make such large messes?—Whatever-" Tsunade changed courses again, shutting the door snugly behind her and giving the mess another annoyed look before focusing on the young woman in front of her. "We need to talk about something-"

"Is it about my thesis?" Sakura leapt, hoping her conclusion was correct. A nod of Tsunade's head proved that it was. "Is it still in your office?"

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Tsunade barked and Sakura refused to truthfully reply. "No, it's with me." She tapped an index finger on a bundle of papers in the crook of her arm. "I don't want Shizune snooping around my office, figuring out things that are best left between you and I…." she trailed off, for the first time in the conversation looking into Sakura's eyes. "You do understand why it is important to keep this a secret, right, Sakura?"

"Of course I do, Shishou." The rosette tried to hide her disappointment that Tsunade would doubt her integrity at a time like this.

"I had to ask." Tsunade's eyes then hardened and the Haruno knew the subject had changed for the worse. "I need you to show me. That way, we can be absolutely sure. Meet me in the Arena SubPar in ten minutes…." She bit her thumb so hard that Sakura was surprised it didn't split open. "And clean up this mess later, I hate the smell of messy files in the morning."

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The Uchiha brothers, upon their grand stallions at the end of a secluded gravel road that lead out of the city they had recently manufactured, regarded each other. It had been a short ride with only light banter but now, Itachi decided, there was business to speak of. "So…" he began and scratched the back of his neck, not really knowing how to phrase what he wanted to ask.

"So, what?" Sasuke was immediate to reciprocate in that even, dark tone.

"We need to talk about some things."

"So you didn't bring me out here to look at the scenery?" Sasuke questioned evenly with a raised brow, gesturing to the forest that began a mere fifty feet from their position where the road broke off into two different paths- toward the nothingness of the rest of the planet, and into the dark forest they had planted upon their arrival. They had built and cultivated the last seventy-five years, but that wasn't much time in the grand scheme of things. Only a few cities now stood in the distance behind them, through the fog of the horizon. "How disappointing."

"Let's be serious, little brother." Itachi chided. "I've been informed that you have requested the council to send civilian families here. Are you sure it is not too abrupt a decision? After all, we're not even sure this planet will change anything with our wo-"

Sasuke's mind, at first, had some trouble registering the loaded, although simple, question. "Do you believe me to make brash decisions, Itachi?" He cut in and didn't wait for an answer- and didn't turn to see Itachi's shaking head. "This planet will be our last chance for a change. Let us hope this works, or we will cease to exist." He turned his dark eyes to the distance, gazing upon the city that would be their new home and— for only a moment—Itachi could believe that he saw a sliver of vulnerability in his brother's expression. "The families will come, my decision is final. They will live here, they will thrive, and we will expand. And, in time, things will be better for our people."

"Don't drown in that hope, Sasuke. It might blind you."

"Don't get philosophical with me," Sasuke couldn't must up the ability to sound harsh, his smirk giving him away. "If we don't hope, no one will. We need to set an example to the others."

"So, you've finally become the leader Father always wanted?"

Maybe it was because responsibility portrayed a great part of his life and education: it had been taught to him since infancy and—his family, his clan, his planet, his brother…everything was counting on this- on his decisions, as the future King. Needless to say, because of these things- his role as 'savior of his people' had barely added to the weight. "I just needed a reason, Itachi." He tore himself from the distant buildings and searched his older brother's gaze to find understanding and his own beliefs warring together. "You may think me cruel, but I will do anything for the good of my people. Anything." He turned his steed in the opposing direction, facing the city he had been staring at since leaving it. "Let's head back. There's more work to be done and the families will be arriving shortly." He could already see the shuttle carrying men and women from his home planet, it hurtled toward the center of the city and burned through the atmosphere.

* * *

Sakura's heels clicked on the polished floor of the Arena SubPar when she entered, greeted by a solemn-looking Tsunade and a tall, built young man with long brown hair tied at the base of his neck. They were standing on the terrace over-looking the arena floor, next to the observational tower's entrance. "I thought this was supposed to be classified information?" Sakura blanched, nodding indiscreetly to the man standing at Tsunade's right when she approached them by the tower's entrance. The observational tower monitored the Gilb Telescope and the Hoit Probe's own information as it explored the deep space of the galaxy.

"Neji will not betray me. Your father engineered him for this facility and I've brought him along to observe."

To this, Neji offered his hand to Sakura but it hung awkwardly between them. "I've never met one of you before." She admitted, looking at his hand as if it would detach at any moment.

"One of what?" He tilted his head and the semi-emotionless, perfect pronunciation would have been enough for her to see that he was not human. He still held his hand rigidly in front of himself—as straight as the rest of his posture.

"A robot-"

"Pardon me, but I do not like to be categorized in those terms." He removed his hand and clenched it at his side. He gave her a glare that she could tell was meant to scorch her. But she could think of nothing to say to that, other than muttering a grudging apology and bowing slightly in his direction before following Tsunade's into the observational room. She could feel Neji throwing exclamation marks at her back behind her as he joined and locked the door.

"I want you to show us _exactly_ what it was that you observed." Tsunade began, ignoring the tense atmosphere between the rosette and the cyborg. "Your thesis mentioned an earth-like planet 200 light-years away. I had Neji scan with the Gilb and there were no traces in that area." The blond altered the Gilb telescope's path, gazing upon the screen as it peered deep into their own galaxy. A star, smaller than their own, orbited by three dense, rocky planets appeared on the screen.

"Perhaps she was wrong?" Neji speculated.

"I'm not wrong." Sakura would have stomped her foot if she thought it would help her argument. Instead she resorted to fumbling with the monitor herself, directing it closer to the sun's horizon. "When I first noticed something different, it was while monitoring the pictures from the Hoit Probe as it ascended into the solar system." Her small fingers found the dialpad of the Probes monitor, to the left of the Gilb's. "The pictures were fuzzy and at first I thought it was simply a solar flare," a picture from the Hoit Probe came onto the monitor. Near the sun's horizon there was an object peeping from behind it, much smaller in stature "But when viewing in infer-red, the heat signature was significantly less. If it were a solar flare, this would not be the case." She switched the monitor to infer-red as she spoke, showing her findings. The large red sun at the right of the screen and the much smaller sphere just beginning to come around its side- the small sphere only grey and almost indiscernible in the blackness of the background. "It was smaller when I first viewed it, though it still hasn't moved much which only indicates that it orbits slower around its own sun than Earth does—and from its size and distance from this sun, it is in perfect conditions to house life but…"

"But what?" Tsunade leaned in, peering closely at the pixilated image, comparing the two to each other and nodding at her own private thoughts. Neji leaned casually against a chair that nobody seemed interested in using, glancing now and again over Tsunade's shoulder and trying to seem disinterested.

"But when the probe neared the planet, an unexpected interference cut the transmission and we could not receive pictured data any longer. But it monitored a drastic change of atmosphere within only a week's time— I couldn't receive enough information to guess exactly how long it has been changing but the velocity of its alterations is so startling that there must be something there that is causing it. Planets don't act strangely on their own—they change over millions of years, not within a century."

"What are you suggesting?" Neji raised a brow, shifting onto his left leg in a move that was so strangely human it put a scratchy vibe in her stomach.

Instead of answering, she turned to Tsunade. Taking a deep breath and preparing herself for rejection, she went for it: "I want to join the shuttle mission H-273. I know that after the interference with Hoit Probe's transmissions they are sending the shuttle to resurrect it. If we add a few scientists and volunteers we can resurrect the probe and also view the planet first-hand-"

"Sakura," Tsunade sighed, leaning back and grasping the chair in front of her for leverage. "I don't think you understand what you're saying. A shuttle mission to this solar-system would span twenty years. The mission specialists of H-273 are trained to survive hyper-sleep and the rigors of deep-space….By the time the shuttle returns, many people you know will be dead. You won't age in hyper-sleep, and the people you love will age here while you are gone. What you are asking is more than you can imagine-" Tsunade stopped herself when she looked at the determined face of her last apprentice and sighed again, wishing she could look anywhere else than into those fierce eyes that reminded Tsunade of herself, so many years ago. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"No." Sakura answered plainly. "I became your apprentice because we had the same dream of finding other worlds. Now that I have that opportunity, I am going to take it. I don't know what we will find, but I can't not go. Especially since I was the one to find what could be the most significant discovery in the history of science."

"You found it by accident, Girly." Neji drawled from the chair he had plopped into during her rant. "Stop getting to emotional- It frizzes my circuits. Also, the shuttle launches in 90 days and you have absolutely zero training in that field."

Tsunade bit her lip in a fashion that was familiar to Sakura. She did it whenever she was about to give in. "Ignore Neji. He has was programmed to be logical-"

"Which is just another word for pessimistic." Sakura mumbled.

Tsunade gave the younger woman her full attention and a wry smile. "You have three months to pass the training. After that, I can't stop you, Sakura."

* * *

Well, there it is. Hopefully the preamble wasn't too boring. I had to get everyone caught up and informed in these first two chapters. In the next chapter, Sakura and Sasuke will meet, finally.

Thank you all for reading and, as always, please review so I can know if people actually like this story or if I'm all alone in this universe :))


	3. Chapter 3: The Decision Made

I do not own Naruto.

Sorry for the long wait. I got a pretty shitty review from someone recently and it kinda made me want to take a little break. Sorry it's so short, as well :( but i will be writing regularly again now what I'm calmed down. For future reference, if you don't like someone's writing, just don't read it. It's as simple as that. Everyone has different styles of writing and I don't see why people feel the need to judge. Writing is art- and art should never be judged. Especially not from behind a keyboard and an anonymous name. That's just cowardly.

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Chapter 3:

The Decision

She couldn't tell if it were day or night anymore. She fled between the two so quickly that her focus now was just to stay conscious. The muffled noise of a large explosion had awoken her but sleep would still not leave completely. It had been with her so long that it refused to release its hold, she assumed, and for a moment she didn't even remember whether she was alive or not- because her body didn't move. Her mind faded into heavy thoughts and fragments, but the body would not budge- like her muscles did not understand her mind's command any longer. Perhaps she had been asleep much longer than she could remember.

Her cheek scratched against something semi-rough as she felt a sudden jolt and the sound of another muffled boom. It was such a contrast to what else surrounded her body- a light, almost feathery protection encasing her, warming her and keeping her alive. Sakura almost felt the sensation of falling but she couldn't be too sure about it, or about the slight sound of wind rushing past her encasements. And when the falling slowed and the final jolt of landing harshly onto tough ground occurred, she didn't have much time to contemplate her situation before the muffled silence ended. When the metal encasing of the shuttle ejected and the atmosphere of her personal pod became disturbed, the noise began.

A quick, alarming tone beeped from the pod's main controls and she heard the whoosh of her air supply exiting its compartment, blowing her hair into her face. She tried to lift her hand to remove it, but it still didn't listen.

"Sakura," Neji's voice rang fuzzy, cutting in and out of frequency, and she almost didn't hear it past the pounding in her ears. "Your vitals are dropping. It is now my duty to remind you of your training." His even, boring tone notified. "You need to breathe." His voice, which should have held concern if he had been human, was anything but.

She tried to remember the training, though, but she still couldn't control the motion of her body. Her lungs, no longer being forced or processed by the pod's personal air supply, simply didn't function. "Sakura," Neji's call hoisted her again. "If you do not breathe, you will die." The monitor above her head continued beeping, the red light flashing and she could see it behind her closed eyelids. "Your body has not needed to function during hyper-sleep and must now learn once more to act accordingly. You learned this during your training."

Did she? The training was a misty memory, bogged down by time….The beeping. It was the damn beeping that was so distracting. She could feel the heat enrapturing her face and her throat burn with the reflex to gasp, but the lungs no longer knew the motion. And the adrenaline of the unfamiliar situation only served to further disorganize her thoughts. "If you do not breathe in three seconds, I will be forced to administer my own methods of preserving your life." He annunciated flatly in that way that was so non-human and non-cyborg at the same time, that it crept into her bones. "Three," The beeping became faster and faster, the red light brighter than before and the soft, protective layer of the pod's ventilation system around her- still shielding her from outside- seemed to shudder. "Two," Her lungs hardened, the dead muscles pumping little blood but almost not living, just like the rest of her. Still alive, but dead. Such a deep sleep that death was too near. "One," the number rang in finality and she heard the clicking of the controls as Neji did something through his modules, then the buzzing of mechanisms moving after many years of disuse.

The cool, metallic rod coiled around her body, down the side of her neck and to the sensitive skin between her third and fourth rib, where the sharp end slowly injected itself into the skin, through the muscle tissues that were too weak to protest, and into the wall of her left lung; and feeling almost immediately the numbing effect of a distinct liquid enveloping her skin. The numbness spread through the muscle as well, cooling the momentary fire of penetration until a single lurch of air-pressure blew through the small tube inside her. The air quickly rushed and circled the cavern of the organ, then shot up through the only opening it could find. Through the windpipe, expanding the pathway and bolting from her mouth- sending the muscles a message, the tube immediately retreated from her flesh and all she could hear were the raspy, shuddering gasps from her torso. Her face cooled and body moved slowly, now awake to its requirements. The muscles, with their newfound bloodflow began tingling and pinching painfully after such long solitary.

"Forgive me. It was necessary." She didn't pay attention to his meaningless apology and plastered her hand against the squishy, absorbent layer above that was both trapping her inside and protected her from the massive fall to ground.

"How do I get out of here?" her voice wobbled, almost unable to make it around her labored breaths- the panic of suffocation in the small area hurtling her into more panic. "How do I get out of here, Neji- get me out, let me out." Her palm slapping against the strange, almost organic layer, the beeping continued.

"I am afraid your vitals are not yet sustained. You need to calm yourself first, Ms. Haruno. It was a long fall and vertigo is sure to follow. If you meet the outside atmosphere, your body could go into shock." He didn't sound too pleased to report this, refusing her an answer.

"Please," she gasped. "I can't breathe."

"You are breathing." The cyborg's voice informed, murmuring from the speaker of the monitor. "Calm yourself. You are using too much air."

"I can't breathe." She repeated like a mantra, slapping at the barrier weakly.

"Your air supply has been depleted to 23%."

Now that the lungs were working all she wanted to do was keep them that way. She wouldn't be able to stop gasping if she tried. No matter how large a breath she took, it didn't feel like enough and her head was swimming. Her hands fumbled around the control panel above her, pressing any button she could feel.

"Don't do that-"

The loud sound of air whooshing came again and this time the fire-white brightness of sky pummeled her, the spongy barrier slowly removing itself and retreating into the walls of the small pod. Air, cool air hit her steaming skin; her arms flew up to protect her face from the brightness that was blinding her but her muscles were still too weak from the lack of use. They fell back almost immediately with a dull thud. "Just breathe." He said. And she did.

For how long she lay, she did not know. But eventually her eyes adjusted and she stared blindly into the dark blue sky, much darker than Earth's. The metal, chunky remains of the H-237 Shuttle Craft blew through the atmosphere, fire and brimstone falling from the sky to the planet. Their ship was now nothing but metallic waste, eaten up by the heat of this planet's sky. Before they could even leave the atmosphere, they were gone. Nothing but particles of ash and smoke floating high above them until that, too, was no longer existent.

"Status report:" Neji, for all his intelligence could never understand human emotion. That lack of understanding was in his manufacturing. Robots simply did not have souls, though some would like to believe the latter. Their faces were like everyone else's, but in their eyes, if one was to look closely enough, there would be spiritually nothing. Nothing but the wiring systems her father had built there. They did not bleed, they did not fear, and they certainly did not love. "The H-237 shuttle, now lost. No other pods in discernable radio contact, and assumed deceased. In short, Dr. Haruno Sakura and Assistant Hyuuga Neji are the last remaining survivors of the Hoit Probe retrieval mission." And that general lack of soulful emotion was apparent in the dead, unwavering confession of his report.

* * *

Uchiha Itachi surveyed the remains of the strange, humanoid ship burn through the stratosphere. "At least we know our defensive barrier works properly." He heard his younger brother admit, which put an acrid tension in his stomach.

"Do their deaths not bother you?" Itachi interrogated, feeling the heated air from the explosion waft over them in the wind. "Have you lost yourself completely?"

"Do not patronize me. Such a race is lucky we allowed them to survive in the first place." Sasuke turned painstakingly from the window, but glanced back when something, glinting in the sun, caught his eye. A lone, small iron structure hurtling from the explosion toward the dark forestry he and Itachi had traveled to many times. He scrutinized as it landed, debris and powdered dirt erupting from the impact. Strangely, a tingling also vented in his stomach. An intense apprehension occupied his body.

He twisted back to Itachi, hoping the man hadn't spotted the insignificant object. But the elder brother's intense gazing provided him his answer. "We must retrieve the survivor." Itachi spoke, his jaw set with a determination Sasuke hadn't seen since parting their home planet—which was centuries ago, but felt like hours.

"Let it be eaten in the forest." Sasuke dismissed, releasing his hand from holding the curtain in place. Once retracted, the heavy fabric fell closed over the light of the window, casting his pale face into darkness. Itachi alone stood in the light. "It will only bring death here. Everything they touch turns to dust."

"They know no better." Itachi defended in his usual way, his senses never leaving the strange thing that had landed afar. "Wouldn't it be our duty to educate them?"

"They know nothing. They want no help and they want no modification of their ways." The younger Uchiha quarreled, hardening his tongue and swiftly circling the room to try and dislodge the deep, obscure fury within himself. When he was sure Itachi wasn't paying attention, he chanced a miniscule glance at the pod himself, half torn between his own arrogance and his brother's compassion. "You are blinded by your love for them." He tiffed, but didn't know if he were speaking to Itachi or simply making an excuse. It was better for the thing to die, was it not? It did not have its place here- its presence did not feel right to him, for some reason. They were not equipped to care for it if it were injured, and surely Itachi would never forgive him for killing it with his own hands—even if he claimed it was for mercy's sake. But, fleetingly, the voice of his mother swam into his memory—inspiring him. She would never forgive him either, for abandoning a creature that he was in a position to aid. Itachi and his mother were too alike, he supposed- much too devoted to the things that did not deserve their affection.

"Perhaps you are blinded by your irrational hatred for them?" Itachi intoned from the window, turning the table yet again on his sibling. "Your hatred for everything, actually. Is it fear of the unknown or are you simply so calloused?" He adjusted his disagreement, approaching from the same position.

To answer that query would take much too long, and Sasuke was certainly not a man of many words. But, also, he was hesitant to admit to his lenient comrade that, yes, he was that hardened. Yes, he would kill the thing as soon as look at it—and he would rest deeply afterward. And, yes, he was blinded by his disgust, and he knew it and did not wish to change that. Because given the history of the human monstrosities, his main focus would be to protect his people from their corrupting influence. He would kill the thing for the good of his people, he decided. He would do it when Itachi was not around it. He would kill it in the shadow of nightfall, because he could not allow it to so much as breathe the same air as his people, for fear of it infecting them all with its impurity.

"We will go then, if it is what you wish." Sasuke finally responded, sparing little attention to Itachi's curious expression at his sudden acceptance to retrieve the survivor. He did his utmost to keep a plain face, if only to keep Itachi from knowing his motives.

The only way to be rid of the thing was to find it first.


	4. Chapter 4: The Sleeper

I do not own Naruto.

Information that will be helpful in the future: I don't want to outright say it in the story (though i will dance around the issue) so I'll say it here. Sasuke sees Sakura as weak because she is smaller than him (the women of Sasuke's race are almost as tall as the men and are experienced fighters so it's strange to him that she is so "tiny"). Secondly, there is a reason why Sasuke's race fled to the new planet. They have a threat to their survival that they need to fix and they are running out of options. Thirdly, Sasuke is not evil...yet. I don't know just how bad i want to make him yet (though I love an evil Sasuke). He is merely short-tempered and under an immense amount of pressure to fix everyone's problems, no matter what the cost. He will literally do _anything_ for his people on a whim. That doesn't mean his race is good though. They are more intelligent and evolved, yes, but there are still bad ones that will probably come into play as i write more. I have characters in my head that may or may not end up entering later on.

* * *

Chapter 4: The Sleeper

Itachi existed merely to torture him—Sasuke was sure of that much. There were only two people that could convince the younger Uchiha to do something that was against his own motives. Itachi was one of them and, dammit, he hated that fact.

Mounted upon their stallions, the two Uchiha moved forward slowly through the men on foot. The group of soldiers, whom Sasuke couldn't remember the names of, cleared the path of any wreckage that might have survived the explosion. "Find it all. I don't want the land tarnished."

"Brother," Itachi called from his left. "Perhaps I should move forward alone to track the survivor's whereabouts?" He held that hopeful tone again, the one that made Sasuke's jaw clench. "It would save time and effort."

Sasuke hoped that his silence was enough of an answer. The last thing he needed was his obstinate brother to go off alone in search of his fixations. Itachi would need to be monitored, or he would be impossible to control. His enthusiasm knew no bounds when he set it to something and, unfortunately, they were searching for that something.

On top of that the mother-star their new planet orbited was shining down strongly, reflected on the armor of the soldiers milling the path, hoisting any objects they found into the cabin. The cleanup would take the rest of the day and several men until it was all found. The survivor was causing him trouble already, and he hadn't even seen it yet.

"Sasuke-sama," one of the men called from inside the forest. It didn't take a second for Itachi to barrel into the shrubbery, the hooves of his steed trailing dirt and rubble behind him. Sasuke followed reluctantly, swallowing down the aggression that kept bubbling up. He followed Itachi's voice through the trees, lightly pushing the large leaves and branches from his way with the back of his hand.

"But you're a doctor. Do something." His older brother ordered. He could establish concern in the voice and picture Itachi's brow knit together in its usual way.

"I know nothing about this species. My help would be counterproductive-"

The muttering became silent as Sasuke cleared his way into the crash-site and leisurely dismounted his stallion. The debris around the small, silver pod was less here and he was thankful for that. He wanted as little damage to the forest as possible and the crash itself was already frightening the wildlife it held. The more he thought about it, the more trouble this visitor was causing. And the more set he became in his resolve. He had a liability to end it.

"Sasuke-sama," the voice he recognized that was arguing with Itachi only moments before called his attention. The regal man, robed in beige and standing alarmingly close to the pod, veered his focus. "I do not understand why I am here. I cannot help this creature without knowledge of its species. I was explaining this to Itachi-"

"I asked you here to put my brother at ease." He stated, ignoring Itachi's accusing glare. Sasuke sauntered toward the shell, still steaming from the heat of the blast. The metal encasement reflected his form as he made his way around to Itachi's side. His black armor, emblazoned with the emblem of his family's name- the proof of his responsibility, stared back at him from the sweltering, mirror-like abomination. It put forth sourness in his throat, as if the creature was mocking him already. His jaw locked and head yearned to look away, to not even glance at the unwanted thing that had literally blown into his life. But he was still walking until Itachi was only inches from his right shoulder and he stubbornly stared at his brother's face for lack of anything other than stalling for time. He didn't want to look at it. He didn't want to see its face because it would only make killing it more of a reality—it would make betraying his brother more of a reality. But he would have to. Because he was watching Itachi gaze at it inside the pod and he could already see adoration there.

And with the strength that seemed of a million suns, Sasuke fixed his eyes upon it, latching onto its face. A small, pale face that seemed younger than what he had expected. For a moment he was afraid that he was watching a child, but the structure of the nose was too mature. The way it connected to the creature's high cheeks- cloaked beneath frail, pastel skin- was not a child's. But it was so different from the strong women of his own kind that he felt intent to stare in wonder of such a strangely compelling structure—eyes closed lightly and lips parted. "Oh, my. Is it dead?" he asked with a little less compassion than he should have and sensed Itachi's shoulders tense close to his. The almost undetectable flush under the skin proved it to be alive but it was so still. Almost not even breathing. Without warning, Itachi leaned forward and touched it. His hand grazed upon hers, almost swallowing it in his own.

"She is warm." He informed, releasing the thing's hand and instead making the bold maneuver of sweeping his arms under its tiny frame, lifting it out of the sanctuary of the pod and against his chest. The thing's head lulled onto his shoulder in a pathetically helpless display, its arms useless and flax as he walked with it past his horse and toward the outer edge of the forest. He could see her feet, shifting with the force of each step Itachi took until he was out of sight, the other men following him with his horse- too fascinated with the thing in his brother's soiled arms.

He stood alone, the sun glaring down upon him and heating his skin. The day would end and he would do what must be done- but first he needed to return to the castle before Itachi caused a commotion among the people. He needed to be sure that this incident was kept as quiet as possible. The citizens were asking so much of him that they didn't need to inquire about this as well. With such a long list of problems already, this setback was the first that needed to be solved- and quickly. This planet was supposed to change everything. His decision to bring the families here was not to be in vain, but to overcome his race's obstacles and continue its survival. But this was threatening everything. He could feel it there, wiggling under his skin. Danger. A danger to his people's faith in him.

Carrying the weight of his fears on his shoulders, he trudged forward a step and paused. A glint of something caught his attention. A cloth tucked on a flake of scrap-metal from the craft billowed in the breeze, reaching out toward him in a gravity-defying dance. The loose strings from the fabric swirling and tickling his fingers as he reached for it, he clenched it in his fist. The malleable cloth crumpled in his grasp and it could only have been from the strange woman's clothing. The gentle olive color of it matched what she was wearing and, ironically enough, it was a color he hadn't seem much of since he was on his home planet.

He tightened his grip, tempted to toss it to the wind and curse its name. But his hand didn't loosen from around it. Instead—and this is what he found most curious of all—his hand shoved it into the pocket of his black trousers, his fingers browsing up and down the smooth edges of it for a few moments as he wondered just how he would dispose of the creature.

And even then, his hand didn't leave the fabric until he returned to the Great Hall, where the commotion of the bystanders was roaring through the room. Itachi stood at the helm of the long carpet that started from the entrance and ended at the foot of the throne room. The tall windows on each side of the Hall illuminated the concerned faces of his followers. They weren't listening to his brother, Sasuke realized. They were waiting for him to speak instead. He would make this as quick as possible, he found. An order no one could refute.

"Under my name, there is no one who will speak of this." His voice was quiet, as always, but travelled through the crowd strongly. "It will remain in the walls of this castle, and any man or woman who speaks otherwise will face my judgment." He gave specific glances to certain members of the court that were liable to break his word. "Itachi will be held responsible for the creature until the counsel and I decide what actions to take to ensure the people's safety. Until then, I assure you my power in this decision is lasting and final."

* * *

It was there. Sasuke could literally feel it breathing lightly behind the locked door, as if it were sleeping under his skin instead. He hadn't entered yet. Why, he did not know. He simply felt content at first to stare at the door like he was seeing through it. Itachi had placed her in one of the guest rooms in the eastern part of the castle, where it was harder to find her. But Sasuke, with a few choice words to Itachi's guards and some bribing of the maids, had eventually been informed of where it resided.

In the dimness of the large hallway there was only stillness surrounding him. He leaned his shoulders against the cool stone wall, his right leg bent onto it as well—and he waited. Patience was always a strong suit in him, but now it was plain maddening. He couldn't chance anyone walking past the room once he entered. He needed to be sure that the hall remained still. So he stayed in that position, unmoving and uncomfortable, for what he guessed to be hours. The long tables and tapestries that filled the emptiness seemed to sigh in boredom with him.

Once the noise of the earlier commotion completely ended and there were no footfalls in the contours of the surrounding hallways that he could hear, he inched forward- grasping the handle, unlocking the clasp and entering into the motionlessness of the guest room. The only sound was the clicking of the door as Sasuke relocked it behind him and the tender breathing of the thing that slept somewhere before him. His eyes adjusted almost immediately to the darkness and just as quickly found the creature lain on a couch much larger than itself, against the wall of the sitting area beneath the large window. The thick curtains were drawn shut and only a sliver of moonlight skittered across the thing's chest, showing the slow rising and falling of its steady breaths. Sasuke, looming over the form of the creature, wondered how it was possible so be so weak, so small in comparison to his kind. Was the creature content with its inferiorities? Was it even aware?

Perhaps it wasn't, he supposed. It let itself open to attack the very moment it landed, unconscious and unprotected. Did it realize the danger it put itself in, or was it simply so helpless to let itself be in this position? He could end it now and save himself the trouble of a lengthy (though unchallenging) resistance, he thought as his hand hung lightly over the skin of the creature's throat—so closely he could feel the temperate heat from its thin skin, invading him to the bone. It would be too easy, he repeated to himself. His hand consumed its neck; it was so unbelievably and tenderly small that it reminded him of the bird hatchlings his Mother used to nurse when he was a child. They were nothing and easily squished out of existence, but she had shown compassion. She always had. Sasuke tried to remember if he had ever shown compassion to anything other than his own people as his hand snaked across the skin slowly, lower on the throat where he could snap it efficiently with little pain.

The creature stirred then settled again, a short huff of air puffing from its nose and tickling his wrist. The jolt was enough to bring his gaze to its face, and in laid his first mistake—meeting the emerald eyes of the female thing, wide and indeed full of a childlike innocence. They settled upon his face, clouded with sleep at first. Then its lean fingers wound up around his hand, as if trying to understand what he was doing. Confusion, alarm, fear; its fingers tightened around him significantly but it was still only a whisper against him—and for a shocking moment, he felt pity sprout in his chest. Pity that the thing couldn't even die with a fair fight.

As his fingers clenched tighter and tighter, he felt the resistance of its own against him, attempting to pry him away. The creature's legs kicked in a chaotic display and shoulders tensed to bolt upright and escape. "Stop it." He ordered, hoping it would obey and make his task that much easier to accomplish. When it didn't, he became irritated enough to force the thing's trembling legs onto the mattress with his other palm, using his substantially heavier weight to bring its torso down easily. "If you stop moving, this would end that much more quickly for you." He rationalized aloud.

It coughed something he could barely understand, the words caught in the thing's throat and vibrating the palm of his hand. He didn't know why the words had struck a chord with him. Perhaps it was because he had never heard it directed at him before from anyone other than his old rival Naruto. Or perhaps it was because he would have never expected it to come from the creature that didn't stand a chance against him. The loaded words momentarily shocked him enough to loosen his grip and sit back slightly to reply, "What did you say to me?"

It sputtered loudly; a raspy, ugly noise too loud after the silent struggle beforehand. Once it regained somewhat stable breathing, it replied—still massaging its roughed up skin and turning glinting, fiery eyes upon him. "I said, fuck you." The soft voice wavered, trying to sound intimidating but coming off as anything but.

He felt the skin on the corner of his mouth twist upward strangely. "That's what I thought you said."


	5. Chapter 5: The Amiable

Chapter 5: The Amiable

The tense setting of his jaw morphed into a smirk. "That's what I thought you said." She watched his lips form around the reply, his words slithery as a snake and voice even—as his shadow, much larger than her own, loomed over her—and she was suddenly hit with a very real sense of foreboding. The sheer sight of him lumbering toward her, bending forward over her again while she lay—she prepared herself for another fight, something in her shoulder twinging as she tightened her muscles for defense. But the clicking of the door halted them both from another one-sided brawl. The face of the man above her, firm and unyielding, turned to worried. It was only a flicker of change before morphing back to the former, but she saw it. Whoever was at the door, he knew who it would be and it didn't settle well with him.

"Makul, makul," a voice, just as deep but carrying along reverence to replace her attacker's hatred, sounded from the suddenly open doorway. The light of the hall extended inward, further illuminating the reserved face of the aggressor- but also the new visitor who had spoken the strange words she did not understand. "Lethil mekka, horroul mat inid." He spoke again, eyes passing from her face to land accusatorily on the man still thwarting over her. "Sasuke." What she assumed was a name flowed to them, eloping her in the foreign sounds. The man above her- Sasuke, she repeated silently- turned only minutely to show the visitor that he had registered the call, but his gaze still hung over her face. A gaze that made it all too clear—he was not a man accustomed to making allowances of any kind. Not with anybody- especially not for her sake.

"Sasuke," the other repeated, almost pleadingly for some reason. "Korri toman. Bemu tila avidi toman." The visitor's hand reached up and hung in the air- mostly in an attempt to coax the other dark-haired man away from her. He kept speaking, but her mind drifted as she watched the former. Sasuke.

She watched his brow knit together in frustration, his eyes tighten in fury and lips thin in dissatisfaction at what he must have been hearing. A deep noise clung in his throat, directed at her and—finally, after many moments of him thinking deeply—he began to turn and leave. The bed groaned in protest as his weight released it and his black boots struck with finality as he approached the door to join the visitor.

But something stopped him momentarily. He turned to her again, sending her _that look_ that she tried to send right back at him (which was made immediately obvious he didn't like). The look that verged on absolutely lethal. "That _thing_," he began with an impressive amount of ill-will toward her very existence, refusing to call her anything but a _thing_— which she thought to be absolutely ludicrous. "Is not to leave this room until I order otherwise."

Then he was gone, morphing back into the shadows of the hall as if he were made by them. The door shut behind him with finality, and she was locked in with the other stranger. A stranger who looked so very much like her attacker that it was unsettling. But that was the least of her worries. Sasuke…..he had used her own language. Somehow, he had known how to speak to her, which brought up a terrifying thought….. how much more did he know about her? What had happened to her crew- to Neji? She remembered his voice coaxing her out of hyper-sleep, but then….nothing. Nothing except Sasuke—his cold demeanor stuck in her mind like a mantra.

The older man cleared his throat and walked toward her, his footsteps not as silent or agile as Sasuke's had been—but equally terrifying.

* * *

Sasuke stood outside the door, hands clenched and knuckles white. He could still feel the stillness of her skin on his hand and his fingers twitched to smother her again- a final time. The finality of _its_ existence, he thought.

Itachi's throat cleared behind him, he could hear it through the thick wood of the door—and hear the footsteps of his brother walking toward the couch where the thing lay. There was loud shifting of blankets and cushions, which meant the _human_ must have been cowering away. Yet another testament to its pathetic smallness. He wondered again how it were not ashamed of its infirmities. "I won't harm you. You have my word." His brother used that smooth tone…the one Mother used with him as a child, Sasuke noticed.

"How am I supposed to trust you?" The thing questions and Sasuke feels a spike of rage that it dare speak to his brother with such disrespect. He does not know how his palms have not bled from the pressure of his nails. His fists shake with the restraint of not tearing the door off its hinges. "The first person I meet of your kind tries to kill me. Now you are claiming to come to my rescue. At least, that's what I'm assuming is happening here."

Sasuke turns abruptly, ready to barge in, but Itachi's answer stops him from doing so.

"My brother is a dangerous man. You will do well to stay out of his way. And I assure you that, while you remain here, his word _is_ final. You cannot leave until he orders otherwise….." Itachi's voice is still soft, coaxing. There is another shift and Sasuke hopes he is not sitting on the couch with _it_. "But in his defense, he believes that you are a threat. If you can understand somehow that his actions are merely to protect the ones he cares for, then perhaps your visit here will not be as harsh. I can assure you that I will speak with him on your behalf….. if you can accept and understand our way of doing things during your visit, perhaps we can accept you as well…in time, of course."

"In time?" Its voice raises an octave in pitiless panic and his brother's boots clunk toward the doorway to leave. "What is that supposed to mean? How long do I have to stay here?!"

The doorknob twists in front of Sasuke and he watches it more intently than he should. "That depends on my brother." The older brother opens the door, letting light into the room again for only a second before shutting it behind him, locking the thing inside, and turning to regard Sasuke- who was just as unpleased as Itachi suspected.

"What did you think you were doing?" Itachi hissed uncharacteristically in a hush, so as not to alarm the girl he had just left. It was the first time Itachi had ever questioned his motives, Sasuke realized quickly. Today was full of many firsts, but the _girl's_ hastily spat words were by far not what he was expecting. And he didn't know what to do now, which was also a first for him. One more reason he already hated the thing lying in that room. What right did she have to turn everything in his life so suddenly?

"I could ask you the same thing." Sasuke answered dryly. "Why would you tell it those things?….They are promises you certainly cannot keep." He spoke lowly, not wanting the thing to hear either. Sasuke was a man who liked knowing where everything in this world belonged, where it all fit. It helped him live his life accordingly….it made ruling a little less of a burden for him. But this human was a problem. She didn't belong here, that much was obvious and _should_ have been obvious for his older brother.

"I don't make promises I can't keep, Sasuke." Itachi warned, straightening his stance- on the defensive. "And she's a girl, not an _it-_"

He put a hand up to silence his brother before he could stop himself, pinching the bridge of his nose to keep from screaming.

Sasuke was a realist- but Itachi was a downright enthusiast. Giving the creature even an ounce of hope was a terrible thing to do. Even if Itachi had only meant to be amiable, the _girl_ would never belong here. Sasuke knew it, Itachi knew it….and deep down he was sure the girl knew it, too. She could never belong here and Itachi's words would turn into lies. When she found that out, it would only be worse for her. Giving it hope was cruel. Crueler than just killing it. But Itachi would never agree with that notion, Sasuke knew. And killing it now- now that Itachi knew Sasuke's motives against its life- would only cause an uproar. His brother would never stand for it, and neither would the council if his brother decided to bring the matter to them, he thought to himself while reading Itachi's face. His hand found its way into his pocket again at some point during his pondering. His fingers grasped the girl's torn clothing tightly and ran along the edge over and over and over until Sasuke noticed he wasn't speaking.

It had been silent between them for too long now, but Sasuke did not know how to change that except for with an apology he did not mean. And he never gave apologies. He never had to and he never meant to. So he turned quickly and walked away.

"Wait," Itachi called, trying to catch his swift pace after the sudden action.

"I wait for no one." Sasuke hurled back over his shoulder imperiously and was gone into the shadows of the corridors.

* * *

The days were longer here, Sakura noticed. The windows in the room were too high for her to see directly out of, but the sun's rays were not extending through the room as quickly as they would have on Earth. It had to be midday and yet the sun filtered straight into the window for the last few hours. There was no change, which only made it harder to count the minutes, or hours, or days even. She certainly hoped she would not be trapped in this room for days, but the constant image of callous from Sasuke lead her to believe she wouldn't be going anywhere at any time soon. The only solace she found was the solidarity from outside the window's high perch. There was no hum of electricity in the background, no sounds of cars passing, no smells of city. For the first time she could remember, there was almost absolute silence outside and she wished- more than anything to go home- but mainly at that moment that she could reach that window and find out why the birds sounded more jovial here….why she could hear pitter-patters of water, why the wind was fresh and crisp without the smog of machinery.

She tried to distract herself with something- anything- to keep herself from thinking too much about her future here. First, of course, was trying to pick the lock of the door, which failed miserably. Second was the lone bookshelf in the far corner of the room- but the only books were ones written in that language she did not understand and so heavy that her shoulder lurched in pain to lift them. The writing was beautiful to see and she was sure if she could understand it that it would only be that much more enjoyable, but for now it was useless to her. She left them in a pile of the floor that reminded her too much of Tsunade and how she would have lectured her on organization, had she been here. But that only brought a stirring in her gut she also didn't want to think about. Neji was missing, though she knew he was alive. The others, she must presume, were not. How was she supposed to figure out how long she had been gone for? Was Tsunade- the only motherly figure in her life- gone as well? Had she wasted away on Earth while Sakura had been carousing her own selfish desires—desires that only brought her trouble in the end? No distraction was enough to not feel the regret, since it looked like her only outcome was dismal to say the least.

Taking her useless musings and finding a better place for them in the back of her mind- though she knew they wouldn't stay there for long; they would resurface, like all bad memories do- she turned away from the pile of volumes and stared up at the window. There were no curtains over it and she could see the sky; the so incredibly dark blue sky that was the first thing she saw of this world when awakening in the pod. The sill of the window was a thick, dark wood wide enough for her to sit upon, if she dared….and perhaps even open. The only problem was getting up there-

The door clicked and released. Not once had that door opened and something good come of it.

"Ah, I'm glad to see you well," the voice was familiar- the voice of the man who claimed to be Sasuke's brother. Sakura refused to turn toward the door and chose instead to turn her attention away. She chose the desk in the corner furthest from the door, hopefully showing him that she was not in the setting to speak with him. Her slight fingers grazed small trinkets and parchment, specifically stopping to scuff against the gold, cool texture of a specific ornament. A curiously small statue of a rider on a large horse, holding some sort of long, spear-like weapon in the air while the horse reared upon its hind legs. The end of the weapon was sharp, she noticed as she almost pricked her finger exploring its point. "I've brought you a visitor." The dark-haired man stated and only then did she turn quickly to regard him.

But her heart sank when she saw the visitor. Someone she had never met before- and she never thought she'd be so distressed that Neji was gone. Neji, during her training to join the shuttle mission, had been nothing to her other than harassing and annoying with his rigorous misuse of his knowledge….or his sarcasm. He used any opportunity to tell her she wasn't good enough, not talented enough, not brave enough….not strong enough, which was the most hurtful of all. But now she wanted so badly to see him, the only thing near her that was familiar.

"This is Tonto. He will dress your shoulder, as I am sure it is causing you some pain," the Sasuke look-alike guided in a man that looked not much older than herself. His hair was a strange clash between auburn and blond- his eyes dark and deeply set. "He is one of our doctors." He went on, introducing the new man, though he hadn't even introduced himself to her yet, she noticed.

Tonto held a tray of wrappings and what looked to be medicines in small containers with metal caps. His beige robing shuffled with his feet as he walked and sat in front of the couch, motioning her to sit in front of him. He was every bit as tall as Sasuke's brother. She thought it strange that a doctor look the same body-mass as Sasuke's sibling, who she was sure was trained in one art or another. The only people on earth with that kind of air and mass were military personnel or a similar field. "Thank you, Itachi," Tonto nodded once he was settled and she stared into the wide eyes of the man he had named. Itachi, her savior…..the savior she still refused to trust, even with those wide eyes and curiosity toward her.

Sakura moseyed her herself to the couch and sat apprehensively before Tonto, who had started unveiling a long string of the cloth and layering it with a goopy liquid from the small tin canisters. He did not speak a word to her nor Itachi once he started, except to ask her to raise her sleeve so that he may have access to her injured shoulder. She could feel the same throbbing pain there as she lifted the cloth- she could not remember hurting herself but it could only have been the jostling from the long fall of her capsule. She could only guess that this was the case from the shooting pain in her muscle and the rip in the cloth of her sleeve. A small chunk of the light green clothing was missing.

She steadied herself and tried not to make eye contact with Tonto, who was still silent. She definitely tried not to make contact with Itachi, who was still staring at her with a curiosity that she was unfamiliar with.

* * *

"Sakura Haruno."

Sasuke looked up from his parchment to the thing that had spoken the girl's name. The 'man's' large white eyes and long brown hair, tied at the base of his neck, were particularly unusual. He wondered if this thing that was not quite living nor inanimate could be trusted. But, then again, Neji had answered all of his questions so far without problem or hesitance.

"Sakura Haruno," Sasuke gently tried the name out himself, and it left an unpleasant taste on his tongue. He suddenly and quite powerfully felt the urge to fidget with the small green cloth of hers in his pocket- but he assured himself this was not the time or place. "You traveled with her." He stated, already knowing it to be truth.

Neji nodded deftly, a hard set on his lips.

"Do you believe her to be dangerous in any way?" The reigning Uchiha grasped a writing utensil to keep his fingers from the blasted thing in his pocket. The tips of them instead ran along the length of the pen as he stared into the white eyes of the mechanical being.

"Let me put it this way," Neji began. "The girl may be mouthy, but she couldn't harm a rabid dog, even if you gave her the weapon and permission."

A smirk formed on the Uchiha's mouth, noting that "mouthy" wasn't quite how he would have put it personally. "I want to believe you. It would certainly mean much less problems for me to deal with if I could. But I have nothing to go on other than your word, and that's not enough to satisfy me. The girl will stay in the room until the ruckus your landing has caused quiets down. My people are unstable here with the recent excitement- and it is my job to keep them safe. So, until I am sure that what you say is true…." He trailed off, the tip of his index finger stopping at the sharp point of the pen.

"I understand." Neji inclined his head foreward, speaking carefully. Tsunade had put him in charge of Sakura's life, and so far he wasn't doing a very good job of it. He didn't want to anger this man in any way that would put her in jeopardy. His personal opinion of her life's worth did not matter. Tsunade was his owner and he needed to do as instructed, even if he didn't like it. "I am sure if you let me speak with her that she will behave herself in a respectful manner from this point on. She just needs an incentive that you will also act respectfully…"

"Respect demands respect. I will give it is she does and proved herself to be safe here."

"Thank you." Neji rose from his kneeling position in the center of the empty room. The only other object was the large throne the Uchiha was proudly perched upon. "I will convince her." He turned to leave and do just that but the deep voice of Sasuke resonated behind him.

"She will never be able to leave, in her short life. This is the way things must be."

* * *

_Hope you guys enjoyed. It's not really long but it was hard getting back into an setting and characters that I have not worked with in so very long. I'm glad that I was able to post though. I'll be going to Chicago and Michigan on vacation for the next couple weeks so I hope I will find time to work more on the next chapter and get that to you guys within the next few weeks :)_

_As always, thank you for your support and reviews!_

_-Ashley_


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